In what is the largest webcasting experiment of its kind, Professor Harry Kroto will be holding a workshop with nearly 2500 Japanese children and teachers simultaneously over the Web. Winner of the 1996 Nobel Prize for chemistry and co-founder of the Vega Science Trust, Sir Harry will be discussing galaxy formation and space chemistry with the children, and helping them to build models of the football shaped carbon molecule, C60.

The workshop is being held at Shiojiri Information Plaza in Nagano, Japan, with forty students present. However nearly 2500 students, teachers and officials will be joining in via the World Wide Web. Eight schools around Shiojiri will be using Internet streaming to receive the seminar. Each student will be able to watch on their own computer, and it will also be projected at the schools. Some of the schools with faster Internet connections will be using video conferencing to interact with Sir Harry. The broadcast will be available on the Web after the workshop is over. The British Council has supplied all 2500 attendees with model kits of C60, the famous “buckyball” molecule for which Sir Harry won the Nobel prize.

The event is taking place on November 12th and has been organised by the British Council, Shiojiri city, Shinshu University Faculty of Engineering, Shiojiri-city board of education and Toyo University. Technical support is to be provided by Seiko Epson, Shiojiri IT Plaza and local TV stations, and the Japanese national TV network, NHK, will cover the event. It can be viewed on the Web at http://www.uknow.or.jp/bc/eng/science/events/videostream.htm

Sir Harry is very enthusiastic about the project. “The first revolution in education was the printing press which democratised the publication of books and reading; in this way human knowledge could be stored and people could have free access to it to learn and add to the store. The second revolution is the Internet which enables the broadcast of moving images as well as two-way interactive communication to be at last used for true educational purposes - at last broadcasting has been democratised too”.

Although in the past the Vega Science Trust has concentrated on producing high quality science programmes for terrestrial broadcast, it has increasingly shifted towards the broadcast and educational possibilities of the Internet. The intention now is to pilot similar schemes in the UK.

For many years Sir Harry has given workshops for school groups with Jonathan Hare, director of the Creative Science Centre and TV presenter from “Rough Science” and “Hollywood Science”. Last month Harry presented a workshop to hundreds of school children in Mexico, and he has a series of workshops planned across the UK.

Useful Links:
The Vega Science Trust http://www.vega.org.uk/
News from British Council, Japan: http://www.uknow.or.jp/bc/eng/science/events/hk_buckyball_e.htm
Shiojiri Information Plaza http://www.city.shiojiri.nagano.jp/plaza/info/kroto.htm (in Japanese)
The Creative Science Centre http://www.creative-science.org.uk/

Contacts:
Ms Gill Watson (Trust Manager) The Vega Science Trust, CPES, Sussex University, Brighton, BN1 9QJ, UK
Tel: +44-1273-678726 or 877293,
Fax: +44-1273-677196
Email: vega@vega.org.uk

Science Officer The British Council, Tokyo, Japan
Email: science@britishcouncil.or.jp